Terry Doyle clearly impressed more than the White Sox with his strong 2011 Arizona Fall League showing.

The right-hander was selected by Minnesota with the second pick in Thursday morning’s Rule 5 Draft, after posting a 4-0 record with a 1.98 ERA over eight starts for the Mesa Solar Sox. Doyle had an 8-10 mark with a 3.07 ERA in 2011, combined numbers between stops at Class A Winston-Salem and Double-A Birmingham, while striking out 122 and walking just 33 in 173 innings. …

“The separator for us was command,” vice president of player personnel Mike Radcliff said. “We saw him in the AFL thoroughly, and he kind of dominated out there (4-0, 1.98). We had a lot of history with him, good report from him in college. The durability was another strong point.

“We had some concerns in the past where his fastball velocity was marginal. It’s hard to judge that in Arizona, for a variety of reasons, but we saw average velocity this year, which was important. His command is good, his makeup is good, and we think he’s got the ability to be a fourth or fifth starter.”

Doyle is a righthander with guile who lacks a plus pitch but knows how to set up hitters. He helped his chances of being picked with an excellent Arizona Fall League performance. He certainly understands the geometry of pitching, consistently getting outs with his command and a cut fastball. Doyle’s 88-92 fastball did pick up as the season progressed and he touched 93-94 mph in Arizona. Doyle confuses hitters who don’t know him, as he often pitches backward, using breaking pitches to set up his fastball. He throws four pitches for strikes, including a biting slider and a high-70s changeup.

The White Sox have been looking to trade Matt Thornton since July and are still trying to move him, according to ESPN.com’s Buster Olney (on Twitter). Before the 2011 season, the White Sox signed the left-hander to a two-year, $12MM extension that covers the 2012-13 seasons and includes a club option for 2014.

The 35-year-old posted a 3.32 ERA with 9.5 K/9, 3.2 BB/9, 0.45 HR/9 and a 48.8% ground ball rate in 59 2/3 innings this past season. Armed with a fastball that averages 96 mph, Thornton figures to draw interest this offseason, as he did last summer, especially since the free agent market doesn’t feature lefty relievers of his caliber. The Yankees, Blue Jays and Rangers are among the teams that may seek left-handed relief this offseason.

“Was mine an interim thing? If I had success, I’m sure it wouldn’t have been,” said Thornton of his abbreviated run at closer. “Obviously everyone knows what happened in the games I was in. Things just didn’t go well for me in that role.

“Maybe it was a sign I wasn’t meant to be a closer here. Over the years, I’ve done a good job of filling in as closer, and I believe in myself in that role and think I can get the job done at any given time when they give me the ball in the ninth inning. But the surge of [Chris] Sale this past year, what he did, and how good Sergio was for most of the year, this is the way it worked out.

“It’s one of those things where things weren’t going good for us and I was part of that in the back end of the bullpen,” Thornton said. “They had to make changes at the time. Just the lack of performance was the most frustrating part for me, my inability to have success that I expect myself to have, prepare and dedicate myself to have all offseason long. It’s very frustrating when you let the team down.”

If Thornton is traded, with Chris Sale moving to the starting rotation, the only lefty in the bullpen will be Will Ohman.

November 19, 2011

The Arizona Fall League announced its 2011 Top Prospects Team. Selected by Fall League managers and coaches, the Top Prospects Team identifies the players who distinguished themselves throughout the league’s seven-week 2011 schedule against other top prospects from every organization in Major League Baseball. Voters were asked to consider Fall League performance and major league projectability. …

Terry Doyle, Mesa Solar Sox (Chicago White Sox)
Led the league in WHIP (0.62) and opponents average (.135), second in wins (4) sixth in ERA (1.98) … fifth among starters in walk rate (1.65 BB/9) … won four straight starts, Oct. 11-28 … week three pitcher-of-the-week after going 2-0 with a 1.00 ERA, 2 hits, 3 walks and 8 strikeouts in two starts … four perfect innings Oct. 11 … five of six runs allowed scored on four home runs … one or fewer hits and three or more innings in five of eight starts … 22:5 K:BB … scoreless fourth inning in AFL Rising Stars Game.

The other starting pitcher that made the ‘Top Prospects Team’ was Seattle’ Danny Hultzen.

Pitch classifications provided by the Gameday Algorithm and may be inaccurate.Pitch Type LWTS correspond to how many runs were likely to score on a particular pitch based on average run expectancy when each pitch was thrown and what happened as a result. Negative scores indicate more effective pitches.Time to Plate is the time, in seconds, that it takes an average pitch of this type to reach the plate. This is strongly correlated with velocity, but also factors in movement.

Pitch classifications provided by the Gameday Algorithm and may be inaccurate.Pitch Type LWTS correspond to how many runs were likely to score on a particular pitch based on average run expectancy when each pitch was thrown and what happened as a result. Negative scores indicate more effective pitches.Time to Plate is the time, in seconds, that it takes an average pitch of this type to reach the plate. This is strongly correlated with velocity, but also factors in movement.

October 19, 2011

The Angels will interview Rick Hahn of the White Sox and Tory Hernandez, their own manager of baseball information, along with Oppenheimer, Eppler, Ng and Dipoto, according to Yahoo’s Tim Brown (Twitterlinks). The interviews will likely take place in the coming week.

“I was just mostly throwing my fastball, they were pretty aggressive and making contact early in the count,” he said. “I was getting a lot of fly balls, trying to work ahead and make their aggressiveness work against them.”

Who will be managing the White Sox next season? We tossed that question at a baseball source who is tight with team chairman Jerry Reinsdorf, and got this succinct reply: “Ozzie Guillen.”

The same source also said, with zero equivocation, that if the Marlins think they can wait this out and then scoop Guillen off the unemployment line this winter, they’d better re-think. Unless the folks in Florida want to trade a big-time player to the South Side, the source said, the White Sox won’t make any move to resolve Guillen’s future until after the Marlins have hired a manager.

Seems like the Sox want to make others think Guillen isn’t going anywhere so they have more leverage in any negotiations that take place. I’m not confident it will work. There is also this nugget:

White Sox officials have been telling people in the game they need to cut payroll next year after going over budget this season. And they also have five starters under contract for next year, even without Buehrle.

So an executive of one team who spoke with the White Sox brass says the only way he sees them making room for Buehrle is if he’s willing to “be creative” about his next contract. AND the club would have to be able to trade one of its current starters — most likely Gavin Floyd. Can all that happen? Of course. But it’s still a lot of hoops for Buehrle and his team to jump through.

I think Buehrle will be “creative.” Maybe a 2-3 year offer would be enough. Sign him Jerry!